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| GEARING UP: LeBron James (L) of the Miami Heat looks for a pass while guarded by Jason Terry of the Dallas Mavericks during game 4 of the NBA Finals at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas recently |
James said at Wednesday’s practice that he needs to find ways to get himself involved in the offence sooner.
“I think it’s that time,” said James who had the worst scoring game of his playoff career in Miami’s 86-83 loss to Dallas in game four on Tuesday.
“It’s time that I try to get myself going individually. It means being more aggressive and looking for opportunities to get a look.”
After stumbling early on, Miami’s Big Three appeared to be putting it together in the finals. Certainly the criticism that came with the free agent arrivals of James and Chris Bosh to join Dwyane Wade would fade with an NBA title.
James, the most dominant player in the post-season heading into the finals, has now given way to Wade who has become the team’s closer down the stretch against the Mavericks. James scored a career playoff low eight points on three of 11 shooting. It marked the first time in 90 playoff contests that James had not reached double figures. “Eight points is definitely inexcusable for myself,” James said. “I hold myself up to a higher standard than that.”
Miami kept it close because of Wade and Bosh, who finished with 32 and 24 points respectively. Wade was Miami’s undisputed superstar back in the 2006 NBA finals against Dallas.
When Miami fell behind 2-0 in the series, then-coach Pat Riley said that he didn’t like it when Wade handled the ball 50 times or more in a game because the Heat usually lost. Wade responded by joking he would only handle the ball 49 times in the next game. Asked Wednesday if he still needed to yield more on offence, Wade said he is willing to sacrifice, and added that the Heat have worked all season to get their big guns firing at once. “I don’t have to allow anyone to do it,” Wade said of getting James more involved in the offence.
“I mean, he’s going to do it, it sounds good to me. Obviously when you have players playing well like I’ve been playing and Chris has played, you kind of get passive. “That’s what LeBron got yesterday. That’s how I got in the Chicago series. And that’s what we’ve been dealing with all year. Trying to play with three guys that can get it going and that can take over games, et cetera.”
James said the Heat know the formula for success and that they just have to execute it. “At times you feel like you don’t have to take over games,” James said. “You don’t have to take as many shots. Sometimes you can get out of rhythm doing it.
“We’ve all been through that. We figured it out through games, through practices, how we can all be effective at the same time. And we need to put it together now.”
Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki expects the Heat to try and get the ball to James in scoring positions more in game five.
“Whoever has the ball, the other two (Wade and Bosh) can’t have the ball,” Nowitzki said. “It’s hard. If one guy is going then it is harder for the other guy to get into a rhythm because you don’t have a lot of touches.
“So they are obviously going to find a mix for everybody for them to attack in the fourth quarters, and we expect LeBron to be aggressive tomorrow and get to the basket.”